Chapter 220 Preparing for War 4
The proposal of general mobilization was rejected by Hitler who was confident!
However, the establishment of the General Armaments Administration to unify the leadership of Germany's armament production was approved by Adolf Hitler.
"Ludwig, I would like to recommend Hermann Goering as the director of the General Armaments Administration." Hitler said to Hersmann in his chancellor's office. "Goering is the Minister of Economy. He has been working very effectively in recent years. I believe he can make armament production meet the needs of the war."
"Hermann," Hersmann nodded to the fat man Goering sitting in a chair next to him, "Let us work together for the future of the German Empire!"
The fat man is not the best candidate, his ability is not as good as Speer. But having a director of the General Armaments Administration is better than having each department in charge of a different thing.
And the fat man Goering also has enough authority. In the past few years, he has formulated and supervised two four-year plans, and the results seem to be very good. Under his command, Germany produced 26.6 million tons of steel, 473 million tons of coal, 70.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, 250,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum and 520,000 cars in 1937. In addition, Germany's shipbuilding industry has also been restored, as evidenced by the construction of the "Scharnhorst" class battleship and the "Seidlitz" class aircraft carrier.
However, the General Armaments Administration will not be completely handed over to Goering. It's not that he doesn't trust Goering's ability. In fact, Goering is quite capable, but he has been corrupted by power in history. In this time and space, Goering's power is not so great that he can be corrupted. But knowing the future development direction of weapons and equipment is Hessmann's greatest reliance, so the jurisdiction of this department is still in the military.
The General Staff and the Ministry of Defense have the right to jointly decide on the director, deputy director and directors of the subordinate bureaus (Army Bureau, Air Force Bureau, Navy Bureau and Reserve Bureau) of the General Armaments Administration. Moreover, the director of the General Armaments Administration is only responsible for organizing production. As for what weapons to produce, it needs to be decided by an armament committee chaired by Hersmann himself - the Ministry of Defense, the Army (General Staff), the Navy and the Air Force all have representatives in this committee, and the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense have the final say.
In other words, the power to decide what to produce and what not to produce is in the hands of Hersmann.
Of course, the armament production plan approved by the Armament Committee must be signed and confirmed by Chancellor Hitler. Hersmann then handed over the latest version of the Navy's "priority" shipbuilding plan to Hitler.
"Mr. Prime Minister, this is part of the latest plan of Plan Z." Hersmann said, "This shipbuilding plan is formulated with the goal of defeating Poland in 1939, defeating France in 1940, and defeating Britain in 1941."
Defeat France in 1940? Defeat Britain in 1941?
Hitler and Fat Goering looked at each other, and both felt like they were listening to someone talking in their sleep.
Hessman said: "Before defeating Poland, the navy will mainly rely on submarines to disrupt commerce. After defeating Poland and before defeating France, the navy will mainly rely on submarines to disrupt commerce and supplemented by attacking the British home fleet. After defeating France, the navy will fight to gain control of the North Sea and the Mediterranean."
"Why is there the Mediterranean?" Adolf Hitler interrupted and asked.
"Because the General Staff predicts that after Germany defeats France, Italy will become our ally," said Hersmann, "then the focus of the war will shift to the Mediterranean."
"Don't we attack Britain immediately?" Hermann Goering asked with a smile, "Aren't you going to defeat Britain in 1941?"
"Yes," Hersmann nodded seriously, "We will make Britain surrender within 1941! But the battlefield to achieve this goal is in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. We will use submarines to suffocate Britain, while also seizing their oil and threatening their most valuable colony, India... and the successful implementation of this strategy will make our strategic resource supply situation quite abundant, which will help us integrate the power of Europe."
Unlike Hitler in history who did not attach importance to the Mediterranean battlefield - Hitler may have believed that Mussolini was capable of conquering this region - Hersmann attached great importance to it. Because he knew that the Middle East and North Africa had the resources that Germany needed to maintain the war and become the leader of Europe.
The abundant oil in the Middle East, the various metal resources in Turkey and Iran, and the grain and cotton in Egypt are all extremely important materials. They can keep European factories running at full speed and allow Europeans led by Germany to live a relatively comfortable wartime life.
"…Priority in Plan Z: Two Bismarck-class battleships, outfitted and put into service in 1940."
Hitler then whispered the large surface ship construction plan that he was most concerned about. At present, the German Navy already has some new large surface ships, including two Scharnhorst-class battleships and three Deutschland-class armored ships. But in general, the strength of the German Navy is still very limited and urgently needs to be strengthened.
"Four Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers, all outfitted and put into service in 1939; two Seydlitz-class aircraft carriers, one to be outfitted and sea trials in 1938, and one to be delivered to the Navy in 1939..." Hitler looked up at Hersmann, "Are these the only priorities?"
"Yes," Hersmann nodded, "These are the only ones that have been confirmed at present."
Regarding the shipbuilding plan, the General Staff and the Navy Department have great differences, and bargaining is still going on.
…
Charles de Gaulle struggled to get out of the narrow tank hatch. The Polish 7TP light tank was too small for a tall man like him. But he was still very satisfied with the Polish tank.
"General, this is a very good tank, almost as good as our R-35 tank." De Gaulle jumped off the 7TP tank and ran to the French Army, which was surrounded by a group of Polish generals. In front of General Gan Molin, Chief of General Staff.
The visit of Gamelin's military delegation meant the comprehensive deepening of the military alliance between France and Poland, and also gave the Poles a reassurance.
"I think Poland should speed up the construction of 7TP tanks," de Gaulle suggested, "and then use all the 7TP tanks together with the R-35 tanks we provided and the British Vick tanks. This will be enough to form four 5 tank battalions. If these tank battalions are combined into two tank brigades and combined with the two motorized brigades that are being formed, they can form two light armored divisions."
The 7TP tank is a tank produced by Poland on its own. It is equipped with a Swiss or British engine and purchased a turret and artillery from Bofors, Sweden (some models also use self-produced turrets plus British artillery and Brown). Ning's machine gun), is a very good light tank. However, the output was not high, with only one hundred, thirty or forty units produced in history.
In this time and space, because Poland took over Ukraine and Lithuania on the right bank, its financial and industrial strength have increased. Therefore, it is possible to produce more 7TP tanks, and at the same time purchase more British Vickers light tanks and French Renault R-35 light tanks (the Poles also had these two tanks historically). But the total number is not much more. According to the establishment level of a battalion of 49 vehicles, the Polish light tanks can form up to 5 battalions. In addition, Poland has also produced more than 800 TK series ultra-light tanks. However, these ultra-light tanks can only be used to support infantry and have no value in forming armored forces. Therefore, each Polish infantry division has a company equipped with TK tanks. .
…
"Char, tell our Polish friends what you think."
In a war room within the Polish Ministry of Defense, General Gamelin asked de Gaulle to tell the French Army General Staff's vision for future wars - from the 1920s when Germany was still bound by the Treaty of Versailles to the present, the French army has been Studying how to defeat Germany again together with Poland and Britain. Many versions of plans were also formulated, and some of them were aimed at the Soviet-German alliance.
Charles de Gaulle took the baton from a Polish officer and walked to a huge military map. What is shown on the map is the severe defense situation currently faced by the Polish Federation. The Polish Federation was "too big", with too many places to defend, and it was also surrounded by the territories of Germany, East Prussia, the Baltics, Bohemia, Slovakia and the Soviet Union. It is almost impossible to adopt a "fight for every inch of territory" strategy.
"We believe that it is impossible for the Polish Federation to deploy heavy troops on every border for defense in future wars." Charles de Gaulle said, "Therefore, we can only adopt a strategy of combining focused defense and mobile defense to protect the entire Poland." The federation is divided into 'key defense areas', 'mobile defense areas' and 'temporary abandonment areas'."
De Gaulle used the baton in his hand to point to Brest and Pinsk, which belong to the Polish Free State; Kiev and Lviv (the capital of the Ukrainian Free State), which belong to the Ukrainian Free State.
"Brest, Pinsk, Kiev and Lviv are all key defense areas." De Gaulle said, "Since Poland is facing war on multiple fronts, it is unrealistic to hold on to the entire Pilsudski Line of Defense. The Polish Federation is not that More troops.
However, the three important supporting points on Piłsudski's defense line, Brest, Pinsk and Kiev, have great holding value. In addition, Lviv, the capital of the Ukrainian Free State, must also hold on because it is the center of Poland's heavy industry. Holding on to these areas will be able to delay the progress of the Soviet army to the maximum extent, destroy the Soviet army's effective forces, and create favorable conditions for victory in mobile defense operations on the Western Front. "